Society's ChildS

Bad Guys

Cambodia: 'Forced Overtime' Claim in H&M Mass Fainting

H&M store front
Staff at the garment factory in Kampong Chnnang where more than 100 workers fainted on Tuesday morning while making knitwear for global brand H&M had been forced to work overtime of up to six hours a day for about two months prior to the incident, a representative of their union said yesterday.

"The factory's boss forced workers to work an extra four to six hours a day during the past two months," union representative Norn Leakhena said, adding that from January to March they were forced to work until 11:00pm. She also said fainting was commonplace at the factory, especially in areas adjacent to the laundry room, which emitted fumes that made workers dizzy.

An executive with M&V International Manufacturing Ltd, however, denied allegations of forced overtime and a toxic working environment, saying the fainting was caused by a "strange psychological phenomenon".

Heart - Black

Austria's new Fritzl: Father kept two mentally ill daughters as sex prisoners in one room for 41 years

An Austrian man is being investigated after locking up his two daughters in a room for 41 years and repeatedly sexually abusing them in a case which matches countryman Josef Fritzl's in its depravity.

Police today confirmed the horrific details of the case in St Peter am Hart, near Brannau - Hitler's home town - close to the German border.

The two mentally ill women were both banned from contact with the outside world and were only allowed in one room of the large property.

Image
© Associated PressHorror scene: The house in St Peter am Hart, Brannau, Austria, where two sisters were subjected to a 41-year sex ordeal by their father
The extended isolation has left both women severely psychologically traumatised and both are now in care.

Stop

Another case of rapid disintegration? US: NYPD arrests naked man in fatal stabbing spree

Image
© Associated Press photo/ file
A naked man who went on a stabbing spree at his Manhattan apartment building, killing an elderly man and injuring four others, was charged with murder on Wednesday, police said.

Christian Falero, 23, was arrested after he randomly knocked on several tenants' doors of the seven-story Washington Heights building and then stabbed the people who answered with a 10-inch kitchen knife, police said.

Police charged him with second-degree murder and robbery.

A second-floor tenant, Ignacio Reyes-Collazo, 81, was killed during the random attacks that unfolded around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Three women, ages 60 to 85, were stabbed and a 22-year-old home attendant was punched, police said. They were all taken to area hospitals; one of the women was in critical condition, the others were stable.

Syringe

The former Australian of the year Patrick McGorry has aborted a controversial trial of anti-psychotic drugs on children as young as 15

Image
© Angela WyliePatrick McGorry ... a formal complaint was lodged
The former Australian of the year Patrick McGorry has aborted a controversial trial of anti-psychotic drugs on children as young as 15 who are ''at risk'' of psychosis, amid complaints the study was unethical.

The Sun-Herald can reveal 13 international health experts lodged a formal complaint calling for the trial not to go ahead.

They were concerned children who had not yet been diagnosed with a psychotic illness would be unnecessarily given drugs with potentially dangerous side effects.

Quetiapine, sold as Seroquel, has been linked to weight gain and its manufacturer AstraZeneca, which was to fund the trial, last month paid US$647 million ($622 million) to settle a lawsuit in the US, alleging there was insufficient warning the drug may cause diabetes.

Penis Pump

US: Jury Rules in Favor of Doctor Who Cut Off Part of Kentucky Man's Penis

Image
© Scott Utterback, The Courier-JournalPhillip Seaton leaves the courtroom after the jury ruled against him in determining that Doctor John Patterson did not act improperly when he partially amputated the plaintiff's penis.
Jurors rejected a truck driver's claim for $16 million in damages after part of his penis was amputated because they believed the doctor saved the man's life, the jury forewoman said in an interview Wednesday.

After only about an hour of deliberation Wednesday, the six-man, six-woman jury in Shelby County Circuit Court found that Dr. John Patterson acted appropriately and Phillip Seaton, 64, of Waddy, should get no money in the lawsuit.

"We felt bad for the circumstances. (Seaton) has our sympathy. But at the same time, he's alive today because this man did what he did, because this man performed the surgery," jury forewoman Lydia Tapp told The Courier-Journal in a phone interview.

Family

Shocking Need: American Kids Go Hungry


In high school, Katherine Foronda trained herself not to feel hungry until after the school day had ended. She wasn't watching her weight or worrying about boys seeing her eat.

She just didn't have any food to eat or any money to buy it.

"I thought, if I wasn't hungry during class I'd be able to actually focus on what we were learning,'' said Foronda, now 19.

Every day, children in every county in the United States wake up hungry. They go to school hungry. They turn out the lights at night hungry.

That is one of the stunning key findings of a new study to be released Thursday by Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks and the largest hunger charity in the country.

As many as 17 million children nationwide are struggling with what is known as food insecurity. To put it another way, one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life, according to the study, "Map the Meal Child Food Insecurity 2011."

Family

US: Mom Got Parking Validated After Baby Allegedly Dropped from Garage

Image
Prosecutors confirmed Wednesday that the infant who was allegedly dropped off a parking garage at the Children's Hospital of Orange County was a patient there.

According to prosecutors, Sonia Hermosillo removed the baby's helmet before allegedly pushing him from the parking structure. Then she reportedly walked into the hospital and validated her parking ticket.

Hermosillo was reportedly being treated for postpartum depression. Her husband, Noe Medina, told the Orange County Register that she was not allowed to be alone with the baby.

Hermosillo, 31, of La Habra, is charged with attempted murder and child abuse in connection with her 7-month-old son being dropped from the fourth story of the parking structure Monday evening.

The baby remains in critical condition at UCI Medical Center.

No Entry

Poland: President vetoes bill allowing GMO seeds

No GMO
© Unknown
Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski on Wednesday vetoed a new legislation that would allow some genetically modified seeds in the country, saying it ran against European Union rules.

Poland currently forbids any GMO cultivation or sales on its soil and must align its legislation with the more lenient one of the EU after Warsaw lost a court case against Brussels on it.

But Komorowski said the bill was faulty after parliament changed the government's original proposal significantly, finally approving a bill that still contradicted EU rules.

"If the parliament approves my veto, I will immediately propose a seeds bill that would not have the GMO element because we need a seeds bill," Komorowski said, adding he knew of no proof that GMO food could be dangerous for human health.


Comment: That's hard to believe: GMO: Health Risks


This is the second presidential veto of a law put forward by the center-right government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who brought Komorowski to the presidency a year ago.

Bizarro Earth

Why the birds and bees are dying: The EPA knows, but aren't telling

Banned everywhere, but legal in the US

Does it get more corrupt than this?

A corporation is allowed to rip the heart of America's agricultural system (honeybees are ESSENTIAL for pollination) and not one of the scumbags in Congress or the empty suits in the White House are doing a thing about it.

We don't have a government in this country. We have a gang of self-serving thieves.


Arrow Down

Sad! National Organization for Marriage Speaker Blames East Coast Earthquake on Gays

Within hours of an earthquake striking the eastern U.S. Tuesday, a rabbi that has spoken for the anti-gay group National Organization for Marriage (NOM) was already blaming homosexuals.

In a video posted to YouTube, Rabbi Yehuda Levin asserted that "one of the reasons God brings earthquakes to the world is because of the transgressions of homosexuality."

"An email went out in my community just a few hours ago, 'How long will it take Rabbi Levin to tie this earthquake in with homosexual marriage?'" he began. "Not very long at all. I'm happy to see that people - even if some of them are scoffers - are starting to see the connection."

"Yes, there is a direct connection between earthquakes and homosexuality. There was in Haiti and it is here, in New York, in Washington, D.C., where they passed homosexual legislation ordinances, in New York City and state, where they opened, especially on Sunday early, where they passed the homosexual marriage law."